Non-senior employees work with customers and suppliers every day, and are therefore in a position to give a completely different perspective from those in managerial positions, offering insights into customer needs and working practices that you may never have thought of.
Create an ideas culture
The first step to tapping the rich resource of staff insight is to create an environment where ideas are welcomed. Employees are unlikely to speak up if the feel that their ideas will be dismissed or disapproved of, so managers must adopt an approach where every point is valid and change is not shied away from.
Achieving this means explaining your approach explicitly to your staff at the outset. Employees must understand that the aim of the exercise is to change the company for the better so that it survives and thrives and that, as the lifeblood of your business, staff opinions are welcomed and respected.
Open a suggestions box
To start gathering ideas, managers could walk the offices asking for feedback, but you may find that many employee's minds will go blank when face-to-face with a senior member of staff, so a more structured way to receive feedback is via a suggestions box.
To ensure this a constructive exercise it should be a core requirement that all suggestions are presented in terms of a problem and solution, rather than just a criticism. Often, staff members will be all too ready to complain, but using this structure forces people to think constructively about how they would like to see the situation improved.
The first step to tapping the rich resource of staff insight is to create an environment where ideas are welcomed
To make the most of the suggestions you receive, it is worth holding a monthly meeting to work through the feedback and agree on the best course of action. The meetings should be attended by representatives from each department who act as a company advisory board, assessing the suggestions and coming up with a set of proposals to be presented to senior management.
This report should also be circulated to staff so that they can see how their ideas have been interpreted and can be certain that they have reached that attention of senior management.
Respond promptly and publicly
The only thing worse than having a complaint, is putting in a complaint and not receiving a response. Ensure that once the advisory board has made its proposals that senior management respond promptly with details as to what action is to be taken.
If a particular suggestion is well founded, but the solution can't be realised, it is important to look for an alternative wherever possible. For example, if the feedback from the sales department is that the use of spreadsheets means that they are spending too long on admin and not enough time on the phone, their suggestion might be to have a bespoke customer relationship management package designed. If the budget won't stretch to it, management might instead purchase an off-the-shelf software package as an interim measure, and agree to review the departments needs if sales pick up as a result.
Recognise individual contributions
Seeing real results come out of suggestions made can be very satisfying for staff, but individual recognition is also important to keep employees motivated to continue thinking constructively about their working processes. Introduce a prize for suggestion of the month and award it publically to make it clear that individual contributions are not only recognised, but highly valued.
As staff and managers alike see the benefits of thinking creatively about working practices, you should begin to a gradual shift in the culture of the office. With staff encouraged to discuss problems at work more openly, you should begin to see the entire workforce motivated to contribute constructively to your creative strategy, which can only have a positive impact on the growth and development of your business.
Marc Hogan is communications skills expert and business coach. For more information visit www.marchoganlive.com [1]